The present invention is directed to polymer bonded electrodes useful in a non-aqueous battery and to a battery system containing said electrodes.
Storage batteries have a configuration composed of at least one part of electrodes of opposite polarity and, generally, a series of adjacent electrodes of alternating polarity. The current flow between electrodes is maintained by an electrolyte composition capable of carrying ions across electrode pairs.
Non-aqueous batteries have certain distinct advantages over other types of storage batteries. They use, as anodes, light weight or alkali metals, such as lithium, lithium-aluminum alloys, lithium-carbon composites and the like which are at the far end of the electromotive series. Those batteries have the potential for providing much higher gravimetric and volumetric energy densities (capacity per unit weight and volume, respectively) than other types of batteries due to the low atomic weight of the metal and high potential for forming a battery in conjunction with suitable positive electrodes far removed from the light weight (alkali) metal electrode (the description herein will use batteries having lithium as the light weight metal anode although other light weight metals can be used) in the electromotive series. The battery can be formed in any conventional physical design, such cylindrical, rectangular or disc-shaped "button" cells, normally of a closed cell configuration.
The battery components of positive electrode, negative electrode and separator can be in the form of distinct alternating plates in a sandwich design or of a continuous spirally wound design as are well known. The anodic electrodes can be formed, for example, from lithium metal or its alloys on a support, such as a nickel coated screen. The electrolyte can be formed of a non-aqueous solvent or fused or solid electrolyte. Illustrative of known useful non-aqueous solvents include acetonitrile, tetrahydrofuran and its derivatives, propylene carbonate, various sulfones, and mixtures of these solvents containing a light metal salt such as lithium salts, as for example, lithium perchlorate, iodide or hexafluoroarsenate and the like. An additional, normally passive component of the battery is a separator membrane located between plates of opposite polarity to prevent contact between such plates while permitting electrolytic conduction. Separators are normally of the form of sheets which possess very low electronic conductivity.
Significant developments have been made in the fabrication of non-aqueous batteries. However, one of the major concerns is the lack of development of a suitable electrode in which the electrochemically active material is present in the form of a porous, flexible, sheet material. The active material must be bonded into a unitary sheet by a material which is inert with respect to the other components of the battery as well as being inert and compatible to the active material. The bonding material must be capable of readily forming a uniform sheet. The resultant sheet must have the active material uniformly distributed through the length and breadth of the sheet as well as across its thickness to provide maximum effectiveness. The bonding material must be kept to very low amounts of the total sheet material or the active material will be encompassed by the bonding material and thereby dramatically reduce the conductivity and activity of the resultant electrode sheet product. Even though present in only small amounts the bonding polymer must be capable of maintaining the sheet integrity and provide resistance to fractures, spalling and disintegration attributable to the expansion and contraction forces encountered in charge-discharge cycling.
Polymer bonded electrodes presently known have a number of deficiencies which has limited their utility and, thereby limited the acceptance of an effective non-aqueous battery system. The presently known polymer-bonded electrodes are not capable of being mass produced by a reliable, cost-effective, non-aqueous process. In addition, the majority of known polymer-bonded electrodes exhibit flaking and disintegration when the formed free-standing sheet is further processed, such as when applied to a current collector and/or during assembly into a battery.
A number of bonding polymers have been considered for and used in the fabrication of cathodic polymer bonded electrodes. The most widely used material at the present time is poly(tetrafluoroethylene), commonly referred to as PTFE or by the tradename Teflon. PTFE bonded electrodes have certain drawbacks which limit their usefulness and ability to provide a highly effective product. For example, the chemical inertness of this polymer causes the fabrication of electrodes to be both difficult and laborious. Generally, it requires initially mixing the active material with an aqueous slurry of PTFE which is then doctored onto a surface and heated to high temperatures (250.degree.-400.degree. C.) to remove the water and cause bonding. The presence of water and the processing at high temperatures limits the active materials which can be used in forming the electrode product. For example, certain chalcogenides are known to be unstable in the presence of water. PTFE bonded sheets tend to flake and are not free standing unless large amounts of polymer are used. The sheets are conventionally bonded to a current collector screen by pressing them together at high temperatures. This process normally produces a brittle product which tends to crack and chip. Finally, a major defect of this known class of product is its non-uniformity both in distribution of active material and of porosity. This defect is inherently due to the processing techniques required, especially the evaporation of solvent from the materials causing non-uniformity across its thickness as well as from point-to-point on the sheet product. Patents illustrating formation of polymer bonded electrodes by this technology are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,457; 3,407,096; and 3,306,779.
Some work has been done to form a product from dry tetrafluoroethylene suspensions to overcome the incompatibility problems associated with water but such products require sintering at very high temperature (e.g. 400.degree. C.) which also limits the types of active fillers which can be used. Patents illustrating this known technology are U.S. Pat. Nos. 20 3,184,339 and 3,536,537.
Most recently polymer bonded electrodes have been formed from slurries of EPDM (ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer) in an organic medium, such as cyclohexane (see "Elastomic Binders for Electrodes" by S.P.S. Yen et al., J. Electrochem. Soc., Vol. 130, No. 5, pg. 1107). Other elastomeric polymers, such as sulfonated ionomers, butyl rubbers and the like have also been used in forming electrodes by a slurry technique (See U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,317). The resultant electrode products formed in this manner exhibit greater elasticity and compatibility with the other battery components. However, the defects of non-uniformity of product, poor control of porosity and pore size distribution remain a problem. In addition, electrodes made by this method exhibit severe loss of activity after being subjected to only a few charge/discharge cycles as noted by the low figure of merit reported in U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,317.
It is highly desirable to be able to provide a polymer bonded electrode which is capable of being readily fabricated without being labor intensive. Further, it is desired to provide a polymer-bonded electrode which can be formed with a very high content of electrochemically active particulate material, can exhibit a high degree of uniformity, is a flexible material which can be readily formed into desired configuration, can maintain its integrity under the conditions encountered in a battery (including expansion-contraction of cycling) and can be initially formed into a free-standing sheet product which can be readily adhered to a current collector element, such as an expanded metal grid or wire screen. Finally, it is highly desired to provide a polymer-bonded electrode which is in the form of a sheet of controlled microporosity capable of permitting entry and mobility of electrolyte therein which can thereby increase the electrode's activity.
Upon initial consideration, it might be assumed that many binding materials could be used as alternatives to the small number of materials presently used and obtain the desired results. However, although there are a large number of polymers available as binders in many applications including as electrode binders, a selection of a specific binder is not obvious to the artisan when attempting to provide a chalcogenide filled cathodic electrode because of the many factors which influence the results one obtains with any particular binder. Among the major factors which influences the results obtained are: (1) the solubility of the binder in the organic electrolytes which are required in this application; (2) the chemical stability of the polymer at the electrode potential realizing that many cells are operated at different potentials; (3) the stability of the electrochemically active and electrically conductive materials used in combination with a particular binder and under the conditions needed for fabrication; (4) the ability of the polymer to bind the particulate material into a unitary structure at very low concentrations in order to provide a cathodic electrode with good performance; (5) the ability and ease of obtaining a uniform distribution of the binder with the active material of the electrode; (6) the ability of the polymer to maintain a stable electrode capable of undergoing a multiplicity of charge-discharge cycling; (7) the number and ease of steps required to obtain the desired cathodic electrode; and (8) the safety, availability of material and cost. Thus, selection of a polymer for use in forming a high performance electrode containing metal chalcogenides has been a difficult task because of the above factors which impose severe restrictions and limitations.
It has now been discovered that a cathodic polymer bonded electrode suitable for use in non-aqueous batteries can be readily formed in a manner which provides a superior electrode and overcomes the processing problems associated with Teflon and other presently used polymers as described above.